Ort May Establish School in U.S.

January 12, 1973

NEW YORK (Jan. 11)

ORT, Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, will send its chief of operations and other members of its central staff to investigate the feasibility of establishing an ORT school in the U.S. This was announced by Mrs. David M. Goldring, national president of Women’s American ORT.

The proposed ORT school will primarily serve a segment of the Jewish poor, probably in a major American metropolis such as New York, Chicago or Miami. There are some 800,000 Jews in the U.S. who live in poverty. However, the school would also reach out to the broader community and would, she said, serve as a model for the establishment of other non-ORT vocational schools in the country.

Mrs. Goldring said that in addition it is planned that an ORT “task force” would come to the U.S. and be available as a consulting body for all groups interested in education–on a federal, state and local level, public or private. She said that, in all probability, the model ORT school would be a high school patterned after ORT high schools in highly developed countries. The school would meet the educational requirements of whatever particular community it is located in and would be geared to actual job opportunities–not only at the present time, but in terms of changing technological directions and needs.

Mrs. Goldring stated that one reason for the decision to establish an ORT presence in the U.S. was the discovery in recent years of pockets of Jewish poverty in the country–a discovery which shocked Europeans. For the first time in history the Jews of the U.S. were looking to a non-American Jewish organization for assistance, she said.

The Labor Alignment received a slight setback and the Gahal opposition advanced in the first elections held by the newly formed needle trade, textile and leather workers union. Labor polled 60 percent against 23.5 percent for Gahal. In other recent trade union elections, Labor won 63 percent while Gahal received only 16-17 percent of the ballots. Votes were cast by 18,300 union members about 61 percent of the membership.

Yosef Tekoah, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, met yesterday with UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to discuss the plight of Jews in Arab countries. There were no details about the discussion.